Currently the vice chairman of Goldman Sachs International, Robert Hormats joined the investment bank in 1982 and became a managing director in 1998. Before entering the business world, Hormats, who earned three degrees, including a Ph.D. in international economics from Tufts University, held several government positions. On the National Security Council staff from 1969 to 1977, he served as senior economic adviser to Henry Kissinger. He held other posts, including assistant secretary of state for economic and business affairs from 1981 to 1982 and ambassador and deputy U.S. trade representative from 1979 to 1981.

In The Price of Liberty: Paying for Americas Wars from the Revolution to the War on Terror (2007), Hormats analyzes the historical successes and failures of wartime fiscal policy and applies these lessons to today’s government. Most presidents have adapted fiscal policy to meet military needs, and Hormats argues that the current administration needs to follow suit. Instead, it has increased spending on homeland security and borrowed from other nations while still cutting taxes and scrimping on domestic programs.